Commercial food providers have generally avoided cooking and selling of stuffed poultry products. Among the reasons for this may be that bacterial contamination is thought to be more pronounced when a bird, such as a turkey, is stuffed before cooking.
Thoroughly cooking a bird eliminates harmful bacteria inherent in any poultry food product. The dangers of the bacteria inherent in a poultry product are, however, exacerbated with the addition of traditional stuffing in the cavity of the bird because the additional stuffing extends the time required to thoroughly cook the bird. To extend the cooking time so that the harmful bacterial are destroyed may lead to the exterior of the bird being overcooked. A significant source of such harmful bacteria are residual bits of the visceral parts which are ordinarily removed and any other organic matter which tends to be trapped in the crevices of the bird's internal bone structure.